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Published: October 7th 2007
Zlotys!
Ok, I know I'm weird, but I think Polish money is really cool looking. Hey everyone! Wow! it's already October and I've officially been in Finland for over two months. Isn't that crazy?! It's been about a week since I last updated and I want to be sure to update before I leave for Germany and Poland. So, what's been going on?
Well, on Monday I woke up at 7:00 and it was pitch black outside. I thought, "It can't really be 7:00, it's not usually this dark." It really was 7:00, though, and it really is getting dark here. However, we have daylight savings time in a few weeks, so that will make it a bit better. During the day I went to the bank and got some Polish money, zlotys, for my trip this week. I got 100 zlotys for about € 30. I always like exchanging money. I don't know why. I just think it's really fun. When I was at home for dinner that night I found out that Jari had some zlotys left over from the last time he was in Poland. He brought it out and counted it and he had like 1100 zlotys. After doing some quick math in my head I was like Holy Crap! he
Yay! Food!
The contents of my package from Grandma and Grandpa. has €3000 just lying around the house in Polish money. But he said that there was no way that was possible and we found out later that what he had were old zlotys so he actually only had like 30 cents worth. Haha.
On Tuesday I had my textiles class again. I found out that 4 of my friends are in the class. They weren't there last week because the 2nd years had something to do during that time. Our assignment for this period is to make something new from something old, so after about 45 minutes into the class we all left and went to the thrift store to see if we could find anything to use. After looking around thrift stores for a while we all went for coffee. I didn't get any coffee, but I wanted a cookie. It cost me €2.30. That was one expensive cookie! After that we went to the mall and went to H&M and stuff. Then everyone left, at least, I thought they did. Apparently only two people left and my friends Ia and Josefine were still there. I found out the next day that they had been looking for me.
The Band
So, this is my basketball team's band. I have no idea why we have a band, and I don't think any of the other girls know either. It's actually kind of a big joke. I felt bad, I thought everyone had left. Anyway, yeah, that was Tuesday.
On Wednesday, after school, I met my Finnish friend Susu again. She had two different friends with her this time, Tia and Otto. Also, there were two girls there from Germany who are spending the week at the Finnish high school. Anyway, so we all went out for coffee. We basically just hung out and talked and I even got to try out a little bit of my Finnish! Wednesday night I had basketball practice and we finally got our uniforms!! We are Vaasan Salama (Vaasa Lightning) so our uniforms are (very) yellow and black. It's always so exciting getting uniforms.
On Thursday morning I went to Japanese class as usual. I hadn't totally finished the homework the night before because I was so tired. At the beginning of the class the teacher said something in Finnish, and I thought he said we were going to have a kanji test (kanji are the little writing symbols). I started like freaking out and trying to study as much as I could because I didn't remember hardly anything. Well, I did this for about half the class
Warm-Ups
See, we're very yellow. until I realized that since we hadn't had any test yet I had probably misunderstood him. Whew! That was a relief. After school on Thursday I got an email from the man who is in charge of the inbound camp which is in Oulu next weekend. I don't remember if I told you guys this so I'll have to start from the beginning. You see, next weekend I get back from my trip to Germany and Poland at 1:00 AM on Saturday. There is a camp for inbound exchange students from my district and the Lapland district in Oulu from Friday October 12th- Sunday October 14th. Originally I thought I wasn't going to go because it was going to be too difficult for me to get there after my trip (Oulu is about 6 hours from Vaasa by train). However, on Thursday I got an email from the guy who is arranging the camp saying I could still go if I wanted to. I decided that I really did want to go and see my friends from the other district and that it will probably be fun. So, now on next Saturday, after I get back from Germany at 1:00
Basketball
I look so interested in what the coach is saying! However, I can't understand a word because it's all Finnish. AM I will have to take the train from Vaasa to Oulu at 6:22 AM. I am going to be sooooooo tired, but I think it will be fun anyway.
On Friday I again had Japanese class. I started talking to this girl in my class, I think her name is Ankki, and I learned some interesting things. I guess, even though it is at a Folkhögskola, the Japanese program is actually a University program. So, most of the people in the Japanese program actually come specifically to this school from all over Finland, which is not usually the case at a Folkhögskola, at least I think. I also found out that I guess our teacher is like REALLY good. He's taught in univerisities in Japan, London, and Norway, and apparently he's also a minister. Who knew? She also told me that next Friday there is a party for the students in the Japanese program. It's really too bad that I can't go. I mean it would have been fun to be able to get to know everyone else better. After Japanese I went back to regular school and I had a history test. It was an essay test
Basketball 2
Look! There's me, number 31! and the teacher made up a special question for me in English so that I could do it too. Gee thanks. It was all about the Ancient Egyptians and since we've been learning all in Swedish, I pretty much had to draw on whatever knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians I had before hand, which was very little. So, I think I probably did horribly, but I don't really care. At least I know that he probably won't catch any grammar or spelling mistakes in my essay, haha. After school I then had to go to the bank to pay for my trip to Germany and Poland. I had to use the ATM multiple times to get all the money out, and I'm glad that the ATM was right outside the bank or I would have been a little nervous walking around with all that cash. You see, here, what you do when you get a bill is go to the bank and pay the money to the bank and then it somehow gets to the company. I don't think that's how it works in the U.S., is it? After that I had to go to the train station to meet
Hockey
The game starts. (Vaasa is red) Arja, my Rotary counselor, so we could buy my train tickets to Oulu. Since I am going to a Rotary camp Rotary will pay for the trip. After that I went home. I was very excited to discover that my package from Grandma Dee and Grandpa Pat had arrived! They sent me 3 jars of peanut butter (2 creamy and one crunchy), a box of graham crackers (Yay! now I can make smores!), and 3 chocolate bars filled with caramel! Now I think I have plenty of provisions to get through the year! On Friday night I had my first basketball game. The team we played was BC Nokia. Apparently last year they were really good, but I guess there team must have changed alot this year. On our team I think the youngest girl is 16 and the oldest is like 26 or 28. I think most people are around 20 or 22, and I think that's what BC Nokia's team was like last year. But this year all the girls on their team were like 14 or 15 so I guess they must have like completely changed teams or something. Anyway, we beat them 80-68 so that was
Hockey 2
The poor people who have to stand the whole time. I think they're the real fans though. They definitely did the most cheering. Although, that could also have been because most of them were probably drunk. pretty cool. I didn't get to play alot, but I didn't really expect to. It was fun though. I gave my camera to Jari before the game and I asked him to take some pictures. He took like 22 pictures and made 3 videos. So, I guess he really is the man to ask to take pictures.
Saturday was pretty fun. I woke up and ate breakfast with my family. Since my host mom hadn't gone to the store on Friday night as usual, we had almost no breakfast food. We had no ham, almost no cheese, and very little bread. So, we made do with what we had and my host mom and I went to the store later. Often when we're at the store she'll tell me like, "Oh you go get the bananas while I get the milk." or something like that. Well, today she told me to go pick out the bread. I was like oh crap! I mean how do you choose one type of bread out of hundreds? And I had to be fairly quick, it's not like I could take 20 minutes to look at every type of bread and then decide.
Eventually I found some, but it really was quite a daunting task. On Saturday night I was supposed to go to a party with my friend Susu. However, it was canceled. So, instead I went to a hockey game with Jari, Jani, and Jani's friend Rasmus. One of Jonna's old friends, Nora, whom I haven't met yet, was supposed to come too, but then something came up and she couldn't. Anyway, Vaasa's hockey team is Vaasan Sport. Their mascot is an eagle or a falcon or something so I don't know why they aren't just the Vaasa Eagles. But anyway, they're not a professional hockey team. They are like semi-pro. It's like the Junior Blues in Springfield. So, the hockey game was fun. There were alot of people their. There are two sections of seats, standing seats and sitting seats. Most people were in the standing section because it's cheaper. I felt kind of bad for them though. I mean, who would want to be standing there for like 2 and a half hours? Anyway, it was a good game and Vaasa won 6-0!! Yay!
Today (Sunday) was pretty much just a lazy day. I woke up at 10:30
and we had breakfast. After I had eaten breakfast, Ros-Mari told me that we would be eating lunch at 12:00 because Jari and I were leaving to watch the boys basketball tournament at about 12:30. I was like "What?" I mean, that was just ridiculous. If I was really afraid I would be hungry I could just eat a lot of breakfast. There was no reason to eat two full meals within one hour just in case I might be hungry. However, it's not like there was anything I could say. So, I just ate a very little bit for lunch. Then, Jari and I went to the basketball tournament. The boys team from my league was playing and we watched their game and one other game. Alot of the girls from my team were there so I sat and watched with them. After that we came home and I packed for my trip to Germany and Poland this week. I have to be at the airport tomorrow at 7:00 AM. So early! I am really excited to go. I think it's going to be a really amazing trip, and I think it will also be good for me to talk to more people from my school.
Well, that's about all for now. I'll definitely write again when I get back from my trip. I'll actually probably put up a few, so be sure to check back again in a week or so!
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Mom
non-member comment
Holy Crap Batman!
Your writing is so entertaining! I sent you a package yesterday, too.